TY - JOUR
T1 - Sex hormones and immune system: A possible interplay in affective disorders? A systematic review
AU - Lombardo, Giulia
AU - Mondelli, Valeria
AU - Dazzan, Paola
AU - Pariante, Carmine
N1 - Funding Information:
This report represents independent research funded by the Psychiatry Research Trust through funding collected in memory of Claire Nacamuli, and additionally supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Nacamuli family and the Psychiatry Research Trust, the NHS, the NIHR, or the Department of Health.
Funding Information:
This report represents independent research funded by the Psychiatry Research Trust through funding collected in memory of Claire Nacamuli, and additionally supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Nacamuli family and the Psychiatry Research Trust, the NHS, the NIHR, or the Department of Health.
Funding Information:
Prof Pariante has received research and consultation funding from Boehringer Ingelheim and Johnson & Johnson. Dr Mondelli have received research funding from Johnson & Johnson. Prof Pariante has received research funding from the Medical Research Council (UK) and the Wellcome Trust for research on depression and inflammation as part of two large consortia that also include Johnson & Johnson, GSK and Lundbeck. Dr Mondelli is supported by MQ: Transforming Mental Health (Grant: MQBF1) and by the Medical Research Foundation (grant number MRF-160-0005-ELP-MONDE). Professor Dazzan has received speaker's fees from Lundbeck and Janssen and is supported by the Medical Research Council (MR/S003444/1). The work presented here is not related to this funding.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/7/1
Y1 - 2021/7/1
N2 - Background: Sex hormones and the immune system may play a key role in sex differences in affective disorders. The understanding of their interplay may lead to the detection of new sex-specific tailored therapeutic approaches. The aim of this systematic review is to summarise the evidence supporting a possible association between sex hormones and inflammatory biomarkers in people with affective disorders. Methods: A systematic search of the literature published until January 2021 was conducted on PubMed database. The initial search identified a total of 1259 studies; 20 studies investigating inflammatory biomarkers and sex hormones in patients exhibiting depressive symptoms were included: 10 studies focused on patients with affective disorders, and 10 studies focused on women in menopause or in the post-partum period exhibiting depressive symptoms. Results: Testosterone and exogenous female sex hormones may play protective roles through their modulation of the immune system, respectively, in male patients with bipolar disorder and in peri-/post-menopausal women with depression. Limitations: The main limitations are the paucity of studies investigating both sex hormones and immune biomarkers, the lack of statistical analyses exploring specifically the association between these two classes of biomarkers, and the great heterogeneity between the participants’ samples in the studies. Conclusion: This review highlights the need to investigate the interplay between sex hormones and immune system in affective disorders. The inconsistent or incomplete evidence may be improved by studies in patients with moderate-high inflammatory levels that specifically evaluate the relationship between sex hormones and the immune system.
AB - Background: Sex hormones and the immune system may play a key role in sex differences in affective disorders. The understanding of their interplay may lead to the detection of new sex-specific tailored therapeutic approaches. The aim of this systematic review is to summarise the evidence supporting a possible association between sex hormones and inflammatory biomarkers in people with affective disorders. Methods: A systematic search of the literature published until January 2021 was conducted on PubMed database. The initial search identified a total of 1259 studies; 20 studies investigating inflammatory biomarkers and sex hormones in patients exhibiting depressive symptoms were included: 10 studies focused on patients with affective disorders, and 10 studies focused on women in menopause or in the post-partum period exhibiting depressive symptoms. Results: Testosterone and exogenous female sex hormones may play protective roles through their modulation of the immune system, respectively, in male patients with bipolar disorder and in peri-/post-menopausal women with depression. Limitations: The main limitations are the paucity of studies investigating both sex hormones and immune biomarkers, the lack of statistical analyses exploring specifically the association between these two classes of biomarkers, and the great heterogeneity between the participants’ samples in the studies. Conclusion: This review highlights the need to investigate the interplay between sex hormones and immune system in affective disorders. The inconsistent or incomplete evidence may be improved by studies in patients with moderate-high inflammatory levels that specifically evaluate the relationship between sex hormones and the immune system.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85105547122&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jad.2021.04.035
DO - 10.1016/j.jad.2021.04.035
M3 - Review article
SN - 0165-0327
VL - 290
SP - 1
EP - 14
JO - Journal of Affective Disorders
JF - Journal of Affective Disorders
ER -